NY Times: With New Mantra, Raiders Rise Again

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/sports/football/10raiders.html?_r=1&hpw

By KAREN CROUSE

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Nothing was going right for Oakland quarterback Jason Campbell against the Kansas City Chiefs. After another mistake-marred possession in the first half of his biggest game as a Raider, Campbell sat slumped on the bench.

He was drawn out of his misery by the injured receiver Louis Murphy, who slung his arm around Campbell’s shoulders, leaned in and bled a couple of 25-second clocks consoling him.

The Raiders this year replaced a quarterback who did not try hard enough with one who sometimes tries too hard. When Oakland traded for Campbell and jettisoned JaMarcus Russell, it marked the unofficial beginning of a new era for the once-storied franchise that won three Super Bowls.

“We’re not the old Raiders,” safety Mike Mitchell said.

The renegade Raiders are gone. In their place are the resilient Raiders as embodied by Campbell, who shook off the home crowd’s boos and his own miscues to steer Oakland past the Chiefs in overtime on Sunday. The 23-20 victory extended the Raiders’ winning streak to three games and improved their record to 5-4, including 3-0 against A.F.C. West opponents. Oakland is over .500 for the first time since 2002.

With games remaining at Pittsburgh, San Diego and Kansas City and against Indianapolis, the Raiders are not out of the wilderness. But Tom Cable, their coach, said Monday: “I think we’ve turned the corner on a couple of things. I think that we go after it now, and I think that we believe we can win.”

Cable came up with a catchphrase that has become the team mantra: just cut it loose.

“It means stop worrying about things that are bad or things that can go bad or whatever that is and just have fun with it,” Cable said, adding, “It just kind of fits them, really.”

The Raiders’ slogan used to be “Just win, baby,” but it had become an anachronism, like nearly bankrupt California’s being called the Golden State. In the seven seasons after their Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay, the Raiders had a 29-83 record. The 2010 Raiders are one victory from snapping a league-record streak of seven consecutive seasons of 11 or more losses.

The franchise that ennobled John Madden, Ken Stabler, Ted Hendricks and the Black Hole had become a football graveyard. Linebacker Quentin Groves said that when he was traded to the Raiders from Jacksonville in April: “Guys told me that’s where you go for your career to die. I was like, man, it can’t be that bad.”

There are certainly worse qualities than loyalty, but Al Davis, the Raiders’ iconoclastic octogenarian owner, used to stand by his favorite players, even the insolent ones. To become a Raider was to feel as secure as a tenured teacher. As defensive tackle Tommy Kelly noted, Davis would fall in love with some players and be reluctant to let them go.

So when Davis abruptly released the underachieving cornerback DeAngelo Hall midway through the 2008 season (he made $8 million for playing eight games), it was a sign that times were changing.

There was no mistaking the message delivered in May, when Russell was released shortly after Campbell was acquired from the Washington Redskins. Cable had already relinquished the offensive coordinator duties, hiring Hue Jackson for the role.

Davis had continued to project greatness on Russell long after the players saw that his work ethic was sorely lacking. By parting with Russell, Davis demonstrated he was serious about rectifying mistakes and not rationalizing them. Just cut it loose indeed.

Punter Shane Lechler, one of only two Raiders draft picks to make the Pro Bowl in the past decade (cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha is the other), said of Davis, “He’s making some really good decisions with our personnel now, and it’s helping out.”

Trading in September 2009 for defensive end Richard Seymour, who won three Super Bowls with New England, was a stroke of genius, if he doesn’t say so himself. “I feel like the Raiders got one on the Patriots on that trade,” said Seymour, who has been an integral part of the revival.

The Raiders’ 2010 draft was another step in the right direction. They used the eighth overall pick on linebacker Rolando McClain to shore up their run defense. McClain started the first nine games, and although he sustained a hip pointer against the Chiefs, the Raiders still held Kansas City’s league-leading rushing offense to 104 yards.

The Raiders were less prudent in other years when, blinded by athleticism, they reached for Russell with the No. 1 pick in 2007 and two years later selected receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey at No. 7 in a stretch.

In the fourth round this year, the Raiders picked up Jacoby Ford, a receiver and track star from Clemson. In Ford, Davis may have finally found the next Cliff Branch. Against the Chiefs, Ford had six catches for 148 yards and ran back a kickoff 94 yards for a score, all in the second half.

He was the first rookie since 1979 to have a kickoff return for a touchdown and more than 100 receiving yards in the same game. He wrestled the ball from cornerback Brandon Flowers in the closing seconds of regulation for a 29-yard catch to set up Sebastian Janikowski’s tying 41-yard field goal. And Ford’s 47-yard catch on the Raiders’ first overtime possession led to Janikowski’s winning 33-yard field goal.

“It just all comes from Jason believing in me,” Ford said.

Trust is the Stickum that bonds these Raiders, but is Cable’s confidence in Campbell cemented?

Campbell has started all three games of the winning streak, completing 57.5 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and one interception. In the process, he has won over everyone, it seems, but Cable, who said before the Chiefs game, “He’s done a nice job, but we know who our quarterback is.”

That would be Bruce Gradkowski, who supplanted Campbell as the starter in the second game before separating a shoulder in the fifth.

Campbell was asked what he had to do to earn Cable’s trust. “I can’t get caught up in that,” he said. “My job every day is to go out and do everything I can to get better.”

On Monday, Cable backpedaled like a defensive back when asked about Campbell’s status. “I’m not going to put him out there unless I believe in him,” he said, adding: “I’m probably leaning toward staying with the hot hand. That’s where I’m at.”

Seymour called Campbell a trouper on Monday for the way he has handled the situation and said, “He’s controlling what he can control: his attitude and his work ethic.”

When Cable said the “just cut it loose” slogan suited this team, he meant, in particular, Campbell, who is his own worst critic.

“Probably all of our conversations now are, ‘Cut it loose, O.K.?’ ” Cable said. “I got you. I’m with you. Really, just stop worrying about things.”

Campbell got the same talk from Murphy on the sideline, and he said it was helpful to be reminded that to succeed in the N.F.L., perfection is not a prerequisite, just perseverance.

[Rey]

Too bad Gradkowski is going to take the starting job when he's healthy.

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Too bad Gradkowski is going to take the starting job when he's healthy.

That's not what I heard.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Too bad Gradkowski is going to take the starting job when he's healthy.

yeah, probably like Stafford, huh? But, hey, Gradkowski may be able to claim he was the starter again for another game and a half before he's put on IR--both of them losses.